Trapped trucker survives hours in subzero temps

NEW TONIGHT, THE SCHOOL THAT'S AT THE CENTER OF ALL THIS. [BUZZER.] WE BEGIN, THOUGH, WITH THAT LOCAL MAN'S UNBELIEVABLE RESCUE. BEGINNING, I'M MATT AUSTIN. AND I'M LAUREN. IT'S NOT ONLY HOW HE SURVIVED, BUT WHAT HE DID WITH HIS PHONE THAT ACTUALLY SAVED HIS LIFE. HE JUST ARRIVED BACK HOME HERE IN ORLANDO TONIGHT AFTER MAKING IT OUT OF THIS. A MAJOR SNOWSTORM IN INDIANAPOLIS. HE GOT PINNED UNDER A TRUCK AND HAD ALMOST NO HOPE OF BEING FOUND. LIVE AT OIA WHERE RUT LOS ANGELES JUST ARRIVED. HE WAS REUNITED WITH HIS WIFE AND THEN HE STOPPED TO TELL YOU A STORY ABOUT HIS CELL PHONE. THAT'S RIGHT, LAUREN. TIM RUTLEDGE WAS PINNED TO THE GROUND FOR HOURS, BUT HE TELLS US THAT WITH ONE HAND FREE HE WAS ABLE TO ACCESS THE VOICE DIAL FEATURE ON HIS CELL PHONE TO MAKE THE ONE CALL THAT SAVED HIS LIFE. WHOEVER ANSWERED THE PHONE, MY FIRST WORDS TO HIM WERE WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T HANG UP THE PHONE BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE THE LAST TIME I HAVE A CHANCE TO TALK TO ANYBODY. 53-YEAR-OLD TIM RUTLEDGE FIELDS LUCKY TO BE ALIVE AFTER SURVIVING SUBZERO TEMPERATURES MONDAY. TONIGHT, LOCAL 6 WAS AT THE AIRPORT AS RUTLEDGE REUNITED WITH HIS FAMILY. IT SEEMED LIKE IT WAS FOREVER SINCE THE LAST TIME I SEEN THEM. I NEVER THOUGHT THAT I WOULD SEE THEM AGAIN. THE VETERAN TRUCKER WAS DRIVING IN INDIANAPOLIS WHEN HIS BRAKES FAILED. RUTLEDGE PULLED OVER AND CRAWLED UNDER THE TRUCK AND THAT'S WHEN IT SHIFTED IN THE SNOW, PINNING HAD IMTO THE GROUND. IT WAS THE LONELYIEST TIME OF MY LIFE. FOR HIM TO HAVE TO LAY THERE ALL THAT TIME THINKING HE WAS GOING TO DIE, I MEAN THAT HAS TO BE WORSE FOR HIM THAN IT WAS FOR ME. WITH WIND CHILLS AT -40 DEGREES, RUTLEDGE WAS UNDER THE TRUCK FOR HOURS AND BEGAN TO PASS OUT. BUT HIS WIFE HADN'T HEARD FROM HIM AND BEGAN FRANTICALLY CALLING. WHAT WOKE ME UP A LOT WAS MY PHONE BEING IN MY POCKET. AND IT WOULD RING. THE VIBRATION CAUSED THE PHONE TO FALL OUT OF HIS POCKET AND ENABLED HIM TO MAKE THAT LIFESAVING CALL. IF SHE HADN'T BEEN BURNING UP MY PHONE, IT WOULD HAVE NEVER FELL OUT OF MY POCKET AND LUCKILY THEY FOUND ME. NOW, AFTER THEY GOT HIM UNSTUCK FROM THE TRUCK, HE WAS ACTUALLY STILL FROZEN TO THE GROUND, SO THEY ACTUALLY HAD TO CUT HIM OUT OF HIS CLOTHES, LAUREN. HIS FAMILY TELLS ME THAT THE ONLY INJURY HE HAS IS TO HIS LEFT HAND. HE SAYS HE HAS SOME NERVE DAMAGE. THAT'S PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY INJURY HE HAS. LAUREN? THAT'S INCREDIBLE. HERE'S A BIG QUESTION. IS HE GOING TO GO BACK TO WORK? WELL, HE TELLS ME HE WOULD LIKE TO GO BACK TO WORK. HE DOESN'T KNOW WHEN THAT WILL HAPPEN. BUT HIS WIFE SAYS SHE NO LONGER

ORLANDO, Fla. -

Tim Rutledge's eyelid had frozen shut. His voice was hoarse after competing for hours with bitter-cold wind and humming truck engines while screaming for help. He was losing consciousness, pinned under his rig in sub-zero temperatures at an Indiana truck stop.

The longtime Florida truck driver had crawled under his truck with a hammer to loosen ice from his brakes around 4 a.m. Monday, as record-breaking temperatures swept into the state. But the truck suddenly settled deeper into the snow, pinning him beneath an axle.

The 53-year-old was trapped, helpless as his cellphone rang dozens of times in a coat pocket he couldn't reach. It had been about eight hours. He feared he was near death.

Then his phone suddenly toppled from his pocket, its vibrating ring enough to finally wiggle it free. He was able to scoop it up with his right hand inside a frozen glove, use its voice dial to call a company dispatcher and muster a quiet plea for help.

"Whoever answered the phone, my first words to him were, 'Whatever you do, don't hang up the phone because it might be the last chance I have to talk to anybody,'" Rutledge told WKMG-TV.

Doctors at IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis said his body temperature was so low when he arrived at the hospital that just one more hour likely would have been fatal. Yet he was released from the hospital on Thursday and planned to fly back home to Orlando, Fla., with little more than numbness in his left hand and side where the axle had pinned him.

Rutledge noted that the phone calls from his wife, Lisa, began soon after he missed making his typical early morning check-in with her.

"I used to think it was kind of a hassle, but I always called her just so she knew where I was at," he said. "I won't take her for granted now. She saved me."

Rutledge had been driving a load from Florida when he stopped Sunday evening at the truck stop, less than an hour away from his destination. As he slept in his cab, several inches of snow fell and temperatures plunged. He woke up to frozen brakes.

Steve Moseley, a dispatcher with First Coast Express of Jacksonville, Fla., said he feared the worst after numerous calls to Rutledge went unanswered. Moseley answered Rutledge's call for help Monday afternoon, and said his voice grew quieter during their conversation until it dimmed to a whisper.

"At one time I called out to him and he didn't say anything," Moseley said. "That scared me a bit."

His trucking company called the truck stop and emergency workers were summoned to search for him as temperatures dropped to more than 10 below zero in the area, with wind gusts of 30 mph leading to wind chills of negative 35 or colder.

It took time for workers to find his semi amid the sea of parked trucks at the Pilot Travel Center in Whiteland, just south of Indianapolis.

By the time he reached the hospital, Rutledge's body temperature had fallen to about 86 degrees.

Dr. Timothy Pohlman, a trauma surgeon who treated him, said another hour outside likely would have been fatal for Rutledge. But he said being under the truck likely shielded him somewhat from the dangerous wind gusts.

"I think just the fact that he had to crawl under a semi to figure out why he broke down in a way forced him to do what is taught in a lot of survival courses for people who have to work in extreme environments," Pohlman said.

Pohlman said Rutledge, who somehow emerged without any frostbite injuries, should fully recover.

Rutledge said he was lucky to be alive.

"There was another hand in this," he said. "If my phone would've dropped the other way, I could never have called anyone. If it (the truck) would've sunk any farther, I wouldn't have had a need to call anyone."

Rutledge arrived at Orlando International Airport Thursday night for a reunion with his family.

“For him to have to lay there all that time and thinking he was going to die, it must have been worse for him,” said his wife, Lisa Rutledge.

Copyright 2014 by News4Jax.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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